The good news is that everything will be connected. The bad
news is that everything will be connected and vulnerable for
external players to gain access to important processes and information. The more open and interconnected your field is, the
more you need to pay attention to cybersecurity. This is not just
a network protection issue, so make sure this area is thoroughly
addressed in your IIo T strategy and plans. Increasingly, field
devices and controls are being designed cyber-resistant from
the get-go, but most of what’s installed in the field is not. Make
sure IT and OT have a plan for added monitoring, protection,
and recovery. You probably will be hacked. It is not a matter of
if, but when and where. Be prepared to recognize the malware
penetration, control the damage, and recover quickly.

Not just for large companies

Speaking of development, IIo T and BD&A solutions are not
just for larger independents, majors, and big service companies
with sufficiently sized staffs to organize and manage large
initiatives. Since these solutions are almost always delivered
via the Edge and Cloud, small and medium sized operators
can take advantage of them “as-a-service” from a variety of
vendors, much as is the case with back office applications
today. One can build, buy, or lease a solution or a variation of
any of the above.

In fact, several of the third-party Production Operations
As-a-Service (POaaS) vendors, such as eLynx, SevenLakes,
Energysys, PetroCloud, and WellAware, are developing or already have developed advanced analytics solutions to supplement their field services.

Investors and partners

Investors and partners are always focused on reserves, production, capitalization, costs, cash flow, ROI, field development
and go-to-market plans. But they should also be asking questions about how the value of an asset will be exploited and
operated. Will operations be manual, automated, or intelligent?
Will an investment in automation and analytics be rewarded
by shorter drilling and completion times, higher production
and lower downtime? If so, by how much? What’s the difference
between the low-cost approach and the best value approach?
Is the operator even capable of running an intelligent asset?
An intelligently enabled and operated asset should be worth
more than one that is a not. Inevitably, the market will reward
this as it does already for smart manufacturing (e.g. automobiles
– all modern assembly plants have automation and robotics),
and many other intelligent industries.

Get help if you need it

Embarking on an IIo T and BD&A journey ultimately means
transforming the way one runs the business, which is not easily
done while keeping the current business model running. Get
help if you need it. We suggest four areas worthy of engaging
the assistance of qualified consultants:

1. Strategy and planning

2. Program/project management

3. Organizational change management

4. Technology evaluation and selectionAvoid using vendors and suppliers who are also offering orproviding solutions and services to help run your program. Ifpossible maintain control and ownership inside your companyunless your business model focuses only on the lease, explo-ration and drilling phases. Having internal control will maxi-mize the chances for successful change, sustained adoptionand ultimately operational excellence.

FINAL COMMENTS

We believe that IIo T and BD&A are truly gamechangers and
we are optimistic that their uptake will have significant impact
on the oil and gas industry. It’s still early and we have yet to
“cross the chasm” to standard off-the-shelf solutions and rapid
adoption, with few exceptions. But these are coming. There
are lots of solutions being tested with positive results, so we
expect progress to continue and accelerate. Now is the right
time, if you haven’t already, to have a strategy and plan in place
to take advantage of Digital Oilfield 2.0.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

President & CEO of PERTEX Management and
Technology Consulting LLC, Joe Perino has over

40 years of experience in upstream, midstream,
and downstream. He has worked in engineering,
operations, maintenance, sales, marketing and
business development, and technical, IT and management consulting. Perino started his career as a process
engineer, then spent 20 years with process automation and
supply chain technology suppliers Emerson, Honeywell and
i2, before joining the consulting ranks with IBM, Logica North
America, KBC Advanced Technologies, and Schlumberger
Business Consulting. Perino holds an BS from the University
of Notre Dame and an MS from the University of Houston. He
has completed executive education at Northwestern’s Kellogg
School of Management and Harvard Business School.

Jim Crompton retired from Chevron after almost

37 years. In his last position with the company,
Crompton was the Senior Advisor in the Global
Upstream IT organization and worked on a variety
of strategy projects concerning the future of the I T
function as it relates to the digital oilfield. Crompton established Reflections Data Consulting LLC to continue
his work in the area of data management and analytics for the
exploration and production industry. Crompton is a Chevron
Fellow Emeritus and was a Distinguished Lecturer for the Society
of Petroleum Engineers in 2010-2011, speaking on the topic of
“Putting the Focus on Data.” He is a frequent speaker at SPE
conferences on Digital/Intelligent Energy and the Data
Foundation.